


A Different Toll

by MajorIndecision



Series: My Eyes Adored You [2]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Emotionally Repressed, F/M, Gage Needs A Hug, How Do I Tag, M/M, Major Original Character(s), Mason is Collared, Mason is a Slave Now, Nuka-World Amusement Park (Fallout), OOC Porter Gage, Original Character(s), Out of Character, Post-Main Quest (DLC), Psychological Trauma, Sad, Slow Burn, Soft Porter Gage, Taking Over Nuka-World, not a self-insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:47:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27496696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MajorIndecision/pseuds/MajorIndecision
Summary: But the news was about as grim as Porter had feared: “We haven’t seen him in months. Gunners attacked Nuka-World—we drove them out, but that was the last time anyone saw him,” supplied one of the traders.Gage grit his teeth, coming forward out of the group to take over the conversation. “Why didn’t you say anything? Send anyone to find him?”“We did,” glared the trader, “but we only have so many people left here. There were casualties. More than when we wiped out your kind.”--or--Gage starts thinking about that ghoul slave he made friends with before the Overboss gave the slaves freedom and control over the park. When they finally find him, he's gone through abuse similar to what he experienced beneath the raiders—but this time, it's taken a different toll on him.
Relationships: John Hancock/Female Sole Survivor, Porter Gage/Original Male Character(s)
Series: My Eyes Adored You [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2009437
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	A Different Toll

**Author's Note:**

> If you don't read the work prior to this one, you probably won't understand what's happening.
> 
> Also, fair warning that I'm not confident in the writing of Gage's character in this one, but if you're a sucker for soft *cough*emotionallystunted*cough* raider men, you're in luck!
> 
> Until Mason shows up, anyway.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Gage hadn’t seen that ghoul in a while, he realized. Major, so Professor had called him—before everything went to shit, anyway. He should have known that the new Overboss would have greater ties to the Commonwealth than to Nuka-World’s raiders.

The other bosses and their lackeys were dead— _ mostly _ . It was fine by Gage—they were assholes anyway, and he was still Professor’s right-hand man, just competing with multiple other companions. The only issue was that a few slaves went missing during the conflict. Major was one of them.

He brought it up to her, approaching her one night during dinner. She glanced up from speaking with another ghoul, some mayor of a town nearby. Gage only remembered that he’d snorted at his name.

“You remember Major, right?” He started. She paused while picking at her Instamash, glancing up at him.

“The ghoul? Mechanic?”

Gage nodded in confirmation. The guy next to her butted into the conversation, leaning over. “Another ghoul? Do I have competition?” He was grinning. Professor giggled and shoved his face away.

“You’re so obnoxious! No, Major was just a friend.”

Gage’s brow twitched. Their fondness for one another was about to derail the conversation—and something about her use of the past tense put dread in the pit of his stomach. He cleared his throat. “So, uh. Where is he?”

Professor’s movements slowed. She gazed at the ground, thinking, before finally saying: “I don’t know. I didn’t see him after we killed William.”

Gage’s lips shifted into a frown. “Well, can I go back an’ see?”

“That’s not a great idea, Gage. Some of the slaves might still see you as a raider.”

“Then come with me,” grunted Porter, “bring your friends along. Make a fuckin’ field trip of it.”

“Sounds like fun,” Hancock grinned, “going to an amusement park.”

Professor sighed. “Well, I guess we should check on the former slaves… Alright, fine. First thing in the morning.”

Gage accepted that. He ducked back to mind his own business, even while Hancock and Professor were all over each other. Hancock. What a stupid name. There had to be something more flattering about him, though, to get Professor giggling like that. Good for her.

Gage briefly considered his own status. When they were living together, Major made him feel— _ something,  _ but he wasn’t sure if it was love. Porter usually found himself thinking of the ghoul, even while away, and some of the shit he did or said made the old raider cringe but smile. He let Major closer to him than he did anyone else, almost instinctively.

Now, worry was gnawing at him. With a sigh, he treated himself to a drink to ease his nerves, finding a quiet corner of Sanctuary to hide in until morning. Until they’d go back to Nuka-World, and hopefully find Major alive.

She took someone else with her besides Hancock that morning—a synth. A walking machine that thought it was a person. Gage didn’t really like him, but he kept his mouth shut, because Professor had explained to him that the tin can was a detective. Whatever helped find his friend, he guessed.

That was still eating at him, though—whether he wanted them to be more than friends. He’d shut those thoughts up until they’d find the poor bastard. He’d hoped it’d be as easy as walking in and asking around, and they’d put him towards some workshop the ghoul set up.

But the news was about as grim as Porter had feared: “We haven’t seen him in months. Gunners attacked Nuka-World—we drove them out, but that was the last time anyone saw him,” supplied one of the traders.

Gage grit his teeth, coming forward out of the group to take over the conversation. “Why didn’t you say anything? Send anyone to find him?”

“We  _ did,”  _ glared the trader, “but we only have so many people left here. There were casualties. More than when we wiped out your kind.”

Gage bristled, and Professor had to step in to stop the conversation there. Porter snapped away from the group, storming off towards the Amphitheater to see if one person in particular was still around.

“Must be nice, bein’ without a collar.”

There he was. Gage turned and found Mason leaning against the gate; despite the bomb collar around his neck, he looked relatively clean and unharmed. Hopefully, he was just as fucking nosy as he’d been in the past. Porter approached.

“Listen, no hard feelings?”

“Oh, there are plenty of hard feelings. I’d tear your fucking throat out with my teeth if I didn’t think I’d blow up seconds later. Maybe it’s worth it, though,” growled the ex-raider boss. Gage rolled his eyes.

“It can’t be that bad. You’re clean, you’re fed—you look nice without all that shit on your face.”

“I’m collared like a fucking dog.”

“Yeah? You upset now that it’s not a choice?”

Mason pushed himself off the wall and squared up against Gage. Porter boredly stared up at the taller man, folding his arms. “Look. I didn’t come here to argue with you, and I certainly didn’t come here to get you killed. I’m just wondering if you saw Major.”

“Who?” growled Mason. Gage closed his eyes and sighed.

“The ghoul. Mechanic. You used to ‘help’ him by feeding him dog scraps.”

The ex-raider boss grinned, showing off those sharpened teeth. As far as Gage remembered, he’d actually filed down his canines to make them sharper. “Oh, him. You mean the one that got taken by Gunners.”

Porter tensed up. “What?”

“Those mercenaries rolled in here looking for bodies to sell. Anyone they could catch alive, they snatched. And they took your ghoul.”

Rage bubbled up from within Gage. He grabbed at Mason’s collar and pulled him down to his level. “You let them take him?!”

“I wasn’t risking my hide for a stinking corpse,” snarled Mason. This, coupled with the aggressive bearing of the larger man’s teeth, made something within Gage snap.

He broke Mason’s fucking nose—decked him right in the face. He heard a few shocked gasps from nearby and stormed off to leave the traders to deal with it, coming back to Professor and her group with his feathers more ruffled than when he’d left. The robot was staring at him.

“Your demeanor either indicates you’ve found a lead and it ain’t what you were hopin’ for, or no one knows anything,” said the synth through a puff of smoke. Could it even properly smoke?

Gage glared at it. “Yeah, found out he was fucking stolen.”

“What?” Professor stepped closer, clearly more alert. Porter’s gaze snapped to her.

“Mason said he was stolen by the fucking Gunners. He—he could be anywhere.”

“Now, now, let’s calm down,” the machine said again. He finally put out his cigarette, huffing the last of the smoke into the atmosphere. “If we know he was stolen by Gunners, we have a lead. That’s something we can work with.”

“We know he was stolen months ago,” winced Hancock. “Doesn’t sound too good.”

“If he was taken, that means they  _ wanted  _ him alive,” Nick reminded the ghoul. Porter folded his arms again. Professor took notice of the blood splattered against his knuckles.

“If he is alive, where the hell do we go to find him?” he demanded.

Professor was the one to speak up next: “They have a few hideouts in the Commonwealth. MacCready might be able to help us with that.”

With that, there was nothing else for them in Nuka-World. Gage had seen enough of it to last a lifetime. He caught a glimpse of Mason as they were leaving, nursing a broken nose. Porter flipped him off. Mason made the motions of a death threat back.

It took months for them to catch onto the trail of where Major had been taken. Their search led them on a hunt through the Commonwealth, tearing through groups of Gunners, then following in the steps of slavers and their clients until finally they found the specific type of raider who may have purchased a ghoul and laid waste to their camp.

Porter was looking through the smoldering remains, increasingly losing hope. At this point, it had been nearly a year since anyone had seen the ghoul they were looking for—what were the chances that he was even alive anymore?

He turned away to place a hand against his head, tired and with a bone-deep sorrow. The loss of Major bothered him greatly, and it was something he’d bottled up, like most other things that saddened him. It was easier that way.

A rustling caught his attention. He tore himself out of his thoughts to point his shotgun at the source, and found instead a ghoul in tattered clothing. Instinctively, he knew it was the one they’d been looking for—but something gave him pause.

There was something about Major’s eyes that was different. Something about his expression didn’t sit well with Gage, and he froze, staring dumbly at him instead. He searched his face and body for something familiar, and it was familiar, but there was enough doubt that he questioned his own sanity.

But Professor came over, too. She didn’t notice the same things, and came over to pull Major into a hug. He tensed immediately with a sharp inhale, and she pulled back when she recognized how uncomfortable he was. It gave her a sense of dread, too.

“Major?” she asked. He stared like he hadn’t heard the name in quite some time, and his gaze met the ground. Wordlessly, he curtly nodded—like he was answering a command. Professor and Gage shared a worried look.

They travelled back with him nonetheless—no sense in leaving him there among the rubble. Hancock observed the other ghoul, significantly stiffer, with interest. “So, this is the guy we’ve spent months lookin’ for? Kinda quiet.”

“He wasn’t always this bad,” Gage said. He sputtered for a second, like he disagreed with his own words, but he took a look at Major’s face and the sentences he tried to form died on his tongue. The ghoul merely stared ahead.

He was more akin now to what Mason had called him—a corpse—than what either Porter or Professor would have liked. Nick leaned forward, analyzing Major’s demeanor. “Trauma is likely. Abuse can really change a person.”

“Well, it ain’t like the raiders treated him well anyway, but he was fine then! What could have changed?” demanded Gage. Valentine turned his gaze towards him.

“Now that’s the sort of thing you don’t ask ‘em, ‘cause it can remind them of things they’d rather not remember. It’s better to let them tell you on their own time.”

So Porter tried that. He tried to be patient with Major, let the ghoul approach him on his own terms, but hours turned to days and he was growing upset with it. Finally, he approached the ghoul on his own, in the early hours of the morning, away from the prying eyes and ears of the rest of Sanctuary. Major was already awake.

Gage came over, careful not to startle him. In his absence, Major had gotten much more comfortable with the handling of guns. He was holding a rifle, gazing into the distance, when Porter approached.

“Hey,” he startled gently. Major acknowledged his presence with little more than a grunt, and it made him frown. “You—remember me, right?”

Major barely turned his head to look at him again. “Are you going to be my master?”

The question took Gage aback. He visibly widened his eyes, nearly going slack-jawed. “I—what?”

“You killed my previous masters. Who will I serve next?”

“I—fuckin’ no one,” frowned Porter. Major merely glanced down, then steadfastly shook his head and gazed ahead again. It was like dealing with a completely different person. “What—what the fuck  _ happened?  _ Why’re you acting like you’re property?”

“I am meant to serve others. Without a master, I have no purpose.”

“What the fuck are you on about?! Your purpose is—bein’ yourself! You’re Major, you love that dumb top hat Professor gave you, you can’t hold your fuckin’ liquor, you like tinkering with shit—”

“Did I love any of that, or did I associate it with not being beaten?” asked the ghoul coldly, stopping Gage mid-sentence. He sputtered for words, suddenly fumbling under Major’s intense gaze. He’d never realized how tall he was before. He’d never stood up straight.

It was almost like the Gunners had turned him from a mechanic into a mercenary. A killer. The thought made Gage’s stomach churn, but he couldn’t figure out why. “You… You’ve killed someone, haven’t you?”

“I’ve killed many. No different from yourself. If you aren’t going to discuss my employment, our conversation is over.”

Major turned away again, and Porter felt a heat behind his eyes, moisture gathering at the edges of his tear ducts. Wordlessly, he turned and ducked away, finding himself a secluded spot to drink and sort out his thoughts.

All of them were confused.  _ He  _ was confused. There was no trace of the ghoul he’d known—the  _ man  _ he’d grown attached to during his time at Nuka-World. When he thought of Major’s smile, of their times together in the marketplace, his heart hurt. Those days were over.

And he was thinking back on them now with an analysis that tainted and stained their memory. Was Major truly enjoying himself, or did he live in daily fear of his own life, even after Professor offered him refuge? Were they not as good of friends as Gage previously thought?”

Porter choked back alcohol and tears, and the latter still stung more. He clasped a hand over his mouth, vehemently shaking his head as though he could will the pain away. He hadn’t cried in years. He hated how weak he felt doing so now—particularly since he didn’t understand  _ why. _

He didn’t want to admit that what he’d felt for Major was love. He’d always believed that love made one weak—it had just been a long time since he’d had an agonizing reminder of  _ why  _ and  _ how.  _

He definitely felt weak, now.

**Author's Note:**

> This may have already been obvious given how Major acts, but last time I was thinking of Gob when I wrote his character.
> 
> This time, I was thinking of Charon.
> 
> Feel free to leave any kudos or comments!


End file.
